This invention is in the field of toy telephones, particularly toy telephones having bell-ringing means and sound reproducing phonographs therein.
Toy telephones having bell-ringing means are known, see, for example, the patent to Wolf, U.S. Pat. No. 3,422,566, and the patent to Breslow et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,757,463. In the Wolf patent, the toy telephone is placed on a table-like support having a magnet below its upper surface. When the telephone is placed over the magnet, the magnet induces closing of a circuit to effect ringing of the telephone bell to simulate an incoming telephone call. When the toy instrument is placed on some other area of the support, no bell ringing takes place. In the Breslow patent, a bellows device within the toy telephone can be expanded from a remote location through a tubular line to ring a bell and thus simulate an incoming telephone call.
Neither of the above patents, however, disclose a toy telephone wherein mere manipulation of the parts of the instrument itself will effect ringing a bell to simulate an incoming call.